en.Wedoany.com Reported - At the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) 2026 conference in Waterloo, three key topics took center stage: master planning for affordable housing, adaptive reuse of industrial-era heritage spaces, and integrating Indigenous values into healthcare design.
The conference, titled "Collaboration Driving Innovation," attracted approximately 700 attendees and featured classroom education programs and hands-on experiential learning sessions. OAA President Lara McKendrick stated that the conference aimed to examine how collaboration underpins design outcomes and addresses the multiple challenges facing the built environment.
During the conference, five workshops were held on the affordable housing master planning track. Two key projects drew attention: BUILD NOW: Waterloo Region–2025 University East, developed by Maxwell Building Consultants and operated by Union Community Housing, has just broken ground on 25 acres of land donated by the City of Waterloo, building 85 units. It is hailed as Canada's largest affordable housing project. Another project is 55 Franklin in Kitchener, a six-story complex of four buildings, also developed by Maxwell Building Consultants. Company President and Co-Owner Mike Maxwell used it as an example to demonstrate a path to delivering affordable housing while meeting low-carbon and energy efficiency goals.
The other three workshops focused on "unlocking the missing middle" to support more mid-density housing, the role of Integrated Project Delivery in improving collaboration and streamlining decision-making, and the potential of prefabrication and modular construction to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing.
In the adaptive reuse of industrial-era heritage spaces track, three case studies were presented. The first was the Loft project in Calgary, which converted 55,000 square feet of vacant office space into 56 rental units. The second case was the Chief Leonard George building in Vancouver, Canada's first mixed-use high-rise mass timber Passive House building, whose design required balancing heritage preservation with community needs. The third case documented how the Waterloo region retained historical character while meeting current building requirements when updating industrial-era heritage buildings.
Another important component of the conference was a discussion on how to integrate Indigenous values into regional healthcare design, in collaboration with the Waterloo Regional Health Network and Indigenous communities.
The OAA also formally recognized the winners of its 2026 Design Excellence and Service Awards during the conference, with three projects receiving additional honors. The Bridlewood Branch of the Toronto Public Library, designed by Fukushima Architects in collaboration with David Fujiwara Architect, received the People's Choice Award. LGA Partners received the Michael V. and Wanda Plachta Award for its Ulster House project, an infill development in Toronto that places five compact homes on a former single-family lot, with a project budget under CAD 8 million. The Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Design Excellence was awarded to Janet Rosenberg & Studio Inc. and Patkau Architects Inc. for their transformation of the Kìwekì Point design on a limestone cliff in Ottawa.
